Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/94

84 Southern; but Mr. Congreve's own account, if Jacob may be relied on, is more than equal to that of Southern, who poſſibly might be miſtaken.

About the year 1671, or 1672, our author was born, and his father carried him, when a child, into Ireland, where he then had a command in the army, but afterwards was entruſted with the management of a conſiderable eſtate, belonging to the noble family of Burlington, which fixed his reſidence there. Mr. Congreve received the firſt tincture of letters in the great ſchool of Kilkenny, and, according to common report, gave early proofs of a poetical genius; his firſt attempt in poetry was a copy of verſes on the death of his maſter’s Magpye.

He went from the ſchool of Kilkenny to the univerſity of Dublin, where under the direction of Dr. George Aſh, he acquired a general knowledge of the claſſics. His father, who was deſirous that his ſtudies ſhould be directed to a profitable employment, ſent him over to England a little after the revolution, and placed him as a ſtudent in the Middle-Temple. But the ſevere ſtudy of the Law was ſo ill adapted to the ſprightly genius of Congreve, that he never attempted to reconcile himſelf to a way of life, for which he had the greateſt averſion. But however he diſappointed his friends with reſpect to the proficiency they expected him to make in the Law; yet it is certain he was not negligent in thoſe ſtudies to which his genius led him.

Mr. Congreve’s firſt performance, written when but a youth of ſeventeen, was a Novel, dedicated to Mrs. Katherine Leveſon, which gave proof, not only of a great vivacity of wit, but alſo a fluency of ſtile, and a ſolid judgment. He was conſcious that young men in their early productions generally aimed at a florid ſtile, and